NDC’s Reckless Pessimism At Play – NPP-USA

God bless the proponents of democracy! For it has come stay in our homeland, Ghana.

However, the prevailing democratic dispensation does not call for irresponsible and gutter journalistic display; neither does it call for reckless write-ups with baseless commentaries obviously calculated to distort facts in the eyes of the unsuspecting Ghanaians.

NPP-USA Public Relations Committee has taken notice of the litters of write-ups by the NDC subsidiaries in the Diaspora, which are mostly targeting Nana Addo’s educational policy. These write-ups, imbued in the tone of desperation for sustenance of political power, are always full of factual inexactitudes! We would have ordinarily ignored such vile propaganda but for the porous nature of the arguments and the infantile logic often showcased in these write-ups, we have decided to set the record straight.

NDC-New York penned example of such piece in a rebuttal to an earlier article put out by our outfit. This article titled “Re: NPP-USA Slams President John Mahama” stated thus “The free education that Ghanaian children used to enjoy during the Nkrumah’s regime was due to the fact that, the then Ghana’s population was between 4.5 to 5 million, with the main source of revenue as cocoa and gold, hence there was no much pressure on other sectors that attracted government subvention. However, with the current explosive population of the country, which is over 25 million, it is highly impossible to provide quality and efficient free education to the ever increasing number of the country's high school students.” This is indeed, a very frivolous, nebulous and bogus argument that lacks the intellectuality of comparative analysis.

Going forward, readers should be reminded that whiles Ghana’s population after independence was 5million, her foreign reserves was a meager $72million in December, 1957 (Quarterly Digest of Statistics; Central Bureau of Statistics, Accra). Now, with a population of 25million, Ghana’s foreign reserves as at August 2012 stand at $4.2billion (Dr. Kofi Wampah, Acting Central Bank Governor, September, 2012) not withstanding the rampant looting of our nation’s coffers by Mahama and his bunch of thieves. This alone shows that, even if the population of Ghana has grown over time, its economic indicators have equally grown to sustain an essential program like the Free SHS proposed by Nana Addo. Therefore, the comparative analyses of Ghana’s foreign reserves vis-à-vis its population, does not only flaws the analysis of NDC-New York, but exposes their ignorance on basic rudiments of economics.

The article also stated that “A clear testimony happened about a month ago when the President met some Mokola women traders, they told him that they do not buy Nana Addo’s free SHS, which they think he is misleading them, adding that, since they are hardworking, they will pay for their children’s education.” Not only is this statement a cooked one, but for the NDC to have rode on its back to watering down the laudable, and doable Free SHS policy shows how the NDC – a self-acclaimed socialist democratic party – has lost touch with the ordinary Ghanaian women from Hamale to Axim, who are always faced with the financial compulsion of putting their kids through senior high school.

It is a sad commentary on the NDC, a party that is fighting over its ideological soul, to premise implementation of social intervention programs on the ability to pay of a section of the society. The infantile nature of this argument is not far fetched. For example, if the late President Nkrumah had been such narrow minded as the current crop of NDC leadership and had premised his programs on the ability of some people to pay, he would not have brought free education to the North because some people in the North at the time, including John Dramani Mahama’s father was “hard working” and could have paid for his children’s school fees. Dr. Hilla Liman would not have become the President of Ghana, and John Dramani Mahama would not have become the President of Ghana and his brother would not be flying around Ghana in a private jet.

Again, another article put out on October 18th 2012, on Ghanaweb by NDC-USA titled “NPP how free is your free secondary education?” was not only inept but also bordered on some incongruous and frivolous inferences. In the said article, the NDC sought to impugn the thought through figures put out by the NPP’s campaign committee on education, suggesting that Ghana does not have that capital requirement to facilitate the free SHS program. How dare the NDC talk about lack of finances when John Mahama, Kwabena Duffour, Betty Mould Iddrisu et al, have connived to dolling out $48million of the tax payers monies to Alfred Woyome for no work done! These are monies that could have built at least fifty (50) ultramodern senior high schools for our kids.

We would want to draw the attention of our colleagues in the NDC to the fact that, governance is a serious business, and as such, for serious minds!

In the administration of Nana Akufo-Addo, there is and will be no place for pessimism. The road map to facilitating this free SHS program has been laid out, and critically examined. It has proven to be very doable, workable and practicable; yet, the fallacies of contemporary Ghana still cast some doubts on it. But NPP-USA is not staggered at all, because an appointee of this incompetent NDC government, Kwadwo Twum Boafo, has categorically stated “the greatest danger to the NDC being re-elected in 2012 is that lie that the New Patriotic Party and their flag bearer are perpetuating that they are going to provide free SHS to the people of this country”. So clearly, the cacophony of noises and doubt leveled against the feasibility of the free SHS program by the NDC only dwell on the vicious parochial interest to maintain political power, but not in the supreme interest of the nation. Under Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana will outlive such rabid retrogressive practices!

Nana Addo’s educational policy – which includes the free SHS policy, the Teacher First Policy, and the massive infrastructure development across our Junior, Senior, Vocational and Technical schools – has come to stay, so Ghana’s political rabble rousers should better wake up from their slumber.

We are very glad that the agenda for this year’s elections are being dictated by our great party – not in a bad taste as the lies and propaganda peddled in the 2008 election by the NDC – which is posited on sound development agenda.

The message content for these elections has virtually been zeroed down to education versus corruption. And in the light of the tax payer’s monies insensibly splashed out to party cronies by John Mahama/NDC government in the form of the infamous and unprecedented judgment debts (Woyomegate, CPgate, Rockshellgate, Isofotonegate) with corrupt ridden deals like the STX housing deal with the Koreans which was his first major deal. We all know what happened to it. In the end, not a single house was built yet the Koreans are demanding $17 million from Ghana as money they lost in the deal. To whose pocket did that money go? Next was the Brazilian Embraer jet deal. That deal fell through because the Brazilians backed off due to excessive demands for bribes by their Ghanaian counterparts – led by John Dramani Mahama. Then there was the Cuban scholarship scheme that has been free to 250 Ghanaian students since 1983. Mysteriously Mahama wanted to charge the nation $75 million for it. It took the Cuban Embassy posting on its website that the program is still free to prevent the looting of our nation’s coffers.

Now a Transparency International Special Investigation is reported to have indicted President John Dramani Mahama for the embezzlement of 170 million dollars of loans and grants given to Ghana since 2010. The monies have been deposited in his account in Switzerland. (Ghanaweb October 24, 2012) The billion dollar question is why is John Dramani Mahama’s name is liked to most of NDC’s obnoxious corrupt deals? President Mahama is indeed a flawed candidate and not fit to rule Ghana.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is our only hope! For like Caesar’s wife, Nana Addo has lived beyond corrupt suspicions – and ready to put our monies into proper use to transform our nation. Vote Nana Addo to help move Ghana forward!!!

Amponsah Stonash

Deputy Communications Director

NPP – USA

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